Fate of The Pharaoh's Curse
by MissDragonCat
Summary: A continuation of the 2003 episode "The Pharaoh's Curse." John Holland has magically placed Mario Devlin in Harry Kellogg's declining body, and taken Mario's young physique for himself. But John isn't the only one with tricks up his sleeve...


"Thank you all for coming," says Shannon to the guests. Everyone is gathered in the main hallway with her and John/Mario. "Harry truly apologizes for not saying good night in person. His back just flared up again."

"Thank you both for an unforgettable evening," says Valencia Morrow. "Dinner before the performance was superb. Please give my compliments to the chef."

The others echo the sentiment, then follow their hosts to the front door. His chef's coat draped over one arm, Kevin moves from a hallway alcove to a nearby window. He watches the guests get into their cars and drive away. John and Shannon stand on the front steps to see them off.

In the theater, Mario/Harry is still on his knees where John and Shannon left him on the stage. The pain in his back finally eases a little, and he's struggling to stand up when he hears a loud thump, followed by raised voices.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?"

"Exactly what it looks like I'm doing."

"Ughhhh! Why do you sound like – No! You can't be!"

With difficulty Mario gets to his feet, limps over to the stage controls and raises the curtain. The curtain rises to reveal Shannon in a seat, gagged and bound hand and foot. The back of a man is just going out the theater door. Mario moves to center stage as the man returns, dragging an unconscious and bound John.

Mario is stunned to see Kevin, who had served his dinner upstairs to keep his presence a secret until show time. "Kevin, what are you doing? What's going on?"

Kevin drags John up the steps to the stage, and pauses to adjust his gloves. "Sorry for knocking you out — I mean, your body. I should introduce myself. I'm Harry Kellogg."

Oh God, Mario silently groans. That's definitely not Kevin talking. How can this possibly get any more insane? "What? How…how can you be Harry Kellogg? He died 30 years ago. In John Holland's body." Mario gestures in bewilderment with his free hand.

Harry/Kevin drags John to the left casket and starts stuffing him inside. "Yes, I did. And I've waited all that time for another chance at him." He glares down at his former mentor. "Good thing it takes a little while to get really used to another body. Otherwise John could have put up a better fight."

Another wave of pain strikes Mario, and he winces and clings to his cane to keep from falling again. Harry finishes getting John into the left casket, except for his feet to keep the door open. Then he goes over to Mario and gently steers him toward the right casket.

Mario asks, "Another chance? What do you mean?"

Harry replies, "I lived for three weeks in John's body. Long enough to find out there's a way to end The Pharaoh's Curse. Not long enough to act on it then. Come on, get in."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Mario stops in his tracks. "Get in? What are you going to do?"

Harry also stops, and shakes his head apologetically. "You're right. I'm forgetting to explain." He takes a deep breath and then exhales.

"John was diagnosed with cancer just before we did The Pharaoh's Curse. After we changed bodies, I had a dream about Giuseppe Pinetti. You know, the 'Professor of Natural Magic' in late 18th-century Europe. He said that if the owner of the Curse and his previous host exchange bodies back, the magic ends and the trick will be destroyed.

A couple of my friends always thought there was something about John. Two days later, we all attended the same business reception. John didn't RSVP because he knew I was going. They still had space, so I was able to get in as him. I could tell that my friends knew something was different. So they believed me when I told them about the exchange, and my dream."

Harry nudges Mario toward the casket and continues. "We tried to be discreet, but John must have caught on to us. He left on a trip he said he – meaning I – had postponed long enough. Talk about a disappearing act. My friends hired a private investigator and tried to find him. They were still looking when I had a heart attack and died."

Somehow a thought occurs to Mario through all this. "If you could come back now, couldn't you have come back sooner? Before John did this again?"

"Yes. But all I could have done then was stop John. That wouldn't have eliminated the Curse. Or kept someone else from taking it and using it. So I had to wait until he was ready to do the trick again. His having that personal chef on duty 24 hours made it easy to lurk around until the performance. Tonight being dinner and a show made this even easier."

Aware of what Mario must be thinking, Harry looks him right in the eye. "I'm really sorry you had to go through this. I am. But it was the only way to get another chance at ending the Curse."

Mario turns and gazes at the right casket in introspection. This illusion really was an illusion, he thinks to himself. I definitely didn't think too far ahead when I zoomed straight over here after getting the video. John Holland was a spider, and like a fly I flew right into his web.

Harry senses Mario's chagrin. "The Pharaoh's Curse has never been just a magic trick. After I died, it was 30 years of torture waiting until John did this again. Not to mention having to let it happen every time Shannon switched with another woman. I didn't come back now just to watch them add you to their body count."

Harry's words sink in, and Mario throws down the cane and steps into the casket. He grips the inside handles for support as Harry closes and bolts the door. Harry then secures John inside the left casket, while a helpless Shannon cries in a muffled voice, "No…no!"

The caskets rise into the air, begin to spin and fill with white smoke. They spin and spin while Harry and Shannon watch. When they stop and return to floor level, Harry opens the right casket and helps Mario out. "Mario, are you OK?"

Mario slowly opens his eyes, and with trepidation looks at his reflection in the casket's glass door. Seeing his own face, he heaves a deep sigh of relief. "It worked…it worked! I'm back! Yeah, I'm OK."

Harry finishes freeing Mario from the ropes with which he'd bound John. They go over and open the left casket where John Holland, back in Harry's disabled body, is conscious again. John sees his reflection in the glass, touches his beard in disbelief and slowly screams, "No…no…NOOOOO!"

Ignoring his cries of pain, Harry and Mario take John down the steps and plunk him into another seat. They hear the sound of doors closing, and look back to see the caskets spinning and filling with dark smoke. The glass turns completely black before both caskets shatter into bits. Then the bits, and the chains which had suspended the caskets, dissolve into nothingness.

Harry goes up to the stage and walks all over the spots where the caskets had stood. He even picks up John's cane and waves it around overhead, as if to confirm that the space is completely empty. Satisfied, he says to a defeated John, "I waited so many years for this moment. The irony is, I spent a lot of that time praying you wouldn't die first. Especially when you had that fall."

To Shannon he says, "End of an era for you too, sweetheart. No more instant new look whenever your old one gets boring."

After binding John again and gagging him, Harry turns to Mario. "We're finished here. Let's go." When Mario hesitates, Harry whispers in his ear. "It's OK. Without The Pharaoh's Curse, they're nothing."

On the walk from the mansion to the garage, Harry fills in Mario on John and Shannon seeing the guests off earlier. When they reach Kevin's car, Harry says, "It was a pleasure meeting you, Mario. I wish we could spend some more time together. But I have to leave now. I'll make sure Kevin gets home."

"You saved my life, Harry. I'll never be able to thank you enough." Mario replies gratefully. "What will Kevin remember after you go?"

"Just that he finished his duties tonight, and went home. John planned this so that none of his regular staff or visitors would be here the next few days. To get Shannon and the caskets off to their new life with 'you'."

Mario arrives home, collapses into bed and quickly falls asleep. He awakens late the next morning, and decides to lay low since there's nothing on his calendar anyway. In late afternoon he orders pizza delivery, and is eating on his living room sofa when his television turns itself on to Z-TV. After a commercial break ends, a news program resumes.

"Welcome back to Z-News. I'm Tamara Bishop. In the entertainment world, a sudden loss in the realm of magic. At 12 noon today, legendary magician Harry Kellogg died in a car crash off Linden Highway. His assistant Shannon Parker, who was driving, was also killed. Their sedan blew a tire and ran off the road, then tumbled 500 feet down a hillside to the ground below.

A motorist behind them on the highway witnessed the crash, and called police. Both Mr. Kellogg and Ms. Parker were pronounced dead at the scene. The investigation is still in the early stages…."

As Tamara continues speaking, the photo of Harry displayed next to her changes. A young Harry smiles at Mario, and a message crawls across the bottom of the screen. "This is what I meant when I said it was OK. Before I came back, Lady Justice said that if I succeeded in ending The Pharaoh's Curse, she'd take care of John and Shannon. And she has."

Mario's assistant Jen immediately leaves his employ to assist her ailing father, who lives far away and just suffered a major stroke. She never asks what happened at Harry's house. Some members of Harry's circle are privately surprised he was riding in a car with his painful back. But with no evidence indicating otherwise, his and Shannon's deaths are officially declared accidental. Their bodies are cremated, and everyone bids them a final farewell at a memorial service prearranged by Harry. His estate goes to charity.

As with its previous owners, The Pharaoh's Curse makes Mario Devlin a legend. He decides that if anyone asks, he'll say that receiving the Curse was conditioned on his promising not to discuss its secret with anyone except his own heir. When the time comes, he'll give a plausible reason for deciding to retire the centuries-old illusion. In the meantime, he has a good 30 years to think of one.

3


End file.
